Chapter 39: The Captain Steps on the Earth
Chapter 39: The Captain Steps on the Earth
The pigeon said this with the usual comical, harmonic door, and silly tone from content to tone.
However, now it was an undead bird burning with ghostly flames, translucent flesh and blood were bones and tendons flowing with flames, and its cries were mixed with cracking and popping, like the whistling of ghosts that leaked out when the gates of the underworld were opened.
As it turns out, many times the distance between evil and harmonic is not that great.
The fire of the spirits that twined around Duncan still burned as he watched the three cultists disappear before his eyes, but was unsure of the principle behind the process.
All he knew was that this was the power of the Ai.
A few seconds later, after confirming that the three cultists were truly unable to return, he turned his head slightly sideways and asked the pigeon on his shoulder, “…… Where did you get them?”
Aey flapped his wings, combing his feathers that had turned into a translucent form with his beak, and reacted for a moment before bursting out, “Retreating into the shadows!”
Duncan frowned, he had begun to learn to understand what Aey really meant in those words these days, “…… You mean you banished them to some kind of …… parallel dimension? Or turned them into some sort of untouchable state?”
The dove lifted its head and looked at Duncan with two fluttering eyes, “Coo-coo!”
It was now pretending to be a real pigeon again.
But Duncan believed he had learned the truth, and he pressed his fingers to Aye’s head, then looked around the dimly lit “shelter” once more.
In the wavering light of the oil lamps, everything in the small room was clear: the Sun God followers who had once hid here had vanished from the world, and all that stood here now was a ghostly captain who had taken over the bodies of the cultists and descended on the place, along with his pigeon.
Yet, in the dark, Duncan had a feeling – it was as if he could sense that the three cultists were still here, right beside him, trapped in this room, in some dimensional crevice that could not be probed or reached by any means.
He could even “feel” the cultists screaming and struggling in vain, and felt their desperation to get back in touch with the real world, but they were permanently blocked out of reality by an invisible barrier.
The feeling permeated the invisible until, at one point, Duncan saw evidence of it: in one of the shakes of the oil lamp on the table, in one of the just-right interludes of light and shadow, he suddenly saw a mark on the nearby wall, which looked as if it had been made by a hard cut with a short sword – but when he looked again, the oil lamp’s oil lamp shook again, and the mark on the wall disappeared without a trace.
That was the last contact the three Sun Believers had with the real world.
Duncan exhaled softly and turned with the dove to leave the room.
Outside the abandoned common room was a tunnel much narrower than the sewer corridor seen before, deep and long that continued on both sides, one end leading to a fork in the road, the other connecting to a ramp that sloped upward.
Even in an abandoned area, the city’s administrators apparently maintained the most basic maintenance of these underground facilities – at least, the gas lights on both sides of the tunnel were still on.
Duncan briefly judged the direction of the tunnel, and combed through the fragments of memory remaining in his mind for the route to the surface, and soon stepped towards the ramp that sloped upwards.
The faster he walked, the faster he went.
Fresh air currents appeared, a slightly cool breeze blowing Duncan’s hair head-on, and he heard some faint, distant sounds that seemed to be the roar of some factory facility on the surface as it operated throughout the night, and the even more distant sound of waves coming in …… the sound of breaking waves lapping against the reefs along the shore in the evening.
Duncan almost jogged.
Aye the Dove, restored to her normal self after her body had faded from psychic flames, flapped her wings on his shoulder and made a happy sound, “The times are calling! The times are calling!”
Duncan stopped abruptly as he stared into the dove’s eyes, “Don’t just talk outside – normal doves don’t talk.” Aye thought for a moment and flapped his wings vigorously, “Aye captain!”
Duncan was instantly surprised as the pigeon responded correctly to himself for once, and wondered if it was a coincidence or what – but he soon stopped thinking about it.
He had to get ready for the world.
The black robes on his body were definitely not to be worn outside, in the memories he had “devoured”, such suspicious robes were only used in the secret ceremonial occasions of the followers of the Sun God, on the streets of the city on the surface of the earth, these clothes belonged to the treatment of seven or eight vigilantes who would be tied to a tree and beaten up for showing their faces.
The city-state of Prand enforces a rather strict curfew, and wandering at night seems to be a rather dangerous thing to do, and ordinary people who want to go out at night must have a pass in hand and report in advance – this cultist possessed by himself obviously doesn’t have these legal formalities, and thus to move around the city he has to avoid those who patrol the night.
The people responsible for maintaining order in the city at night are called “guardians”, they seem to be the armed forces under the Church of the Deep, in the swallowed memories, the original owner of this body has a deep fear and hostility towards those armed clerics ……
Duncan quickly sorted out the fragments of memories in his mind, due to the memories inherited from a corpse, most of these fragments were messy and blurred, he could not piece together the complete life trajectory of a “member of a modern civilized society” from them, and he also could not piece together all the information about the city-state of Pridelands, but even the most basic parts of them were enough for him to make a good decision in his next action. But even the most basic parts of it were enough to give him a rough idea of what to expect in his next actions.
First, he took off his black robe before the ramp to the surface – underneath it were his normal clothes, so he wouldn’t arouse suspicion if he walked outside.
He considered for a moment if he should torch the black robe, but the flames and smoke might draw the attention of the Night Rangers instead, so in the end he just rolled it up and hid it in a corner near the ramp.
The sun amulet was also something that could cause trouble, but it also had the potential to hold valuable information, and after some hesitation, Duncan decided to take it with him – he could use the amulet for another test when he returned to the Lost Country to see if Aye could bring it back as well.
He could study the thing in peace aboard the Lost Country.
He took care of the traces of the hidden black robes, and took care of his grooming in general, trying to look like an ordinary citizen rather than a cultist who was in a sorry state of XZ in the sewers – and only when that was done did he step up that ramp.
It wasn’t too far the rest of the way.
As Duncan sprinted up the ramp, the fresher and fresher air filling his chest, he could already clearly hear the sounds of the factories and the waves in the distance, and after a few minutes he even saw a cool glow appear on the steps not far ahead.
He took a few tight steps forward and the cool glow finally enveloped him completely.
He came to the surface.
Solid, stable, earth bathed in pale shimmering light.
Duncan’s eyes widened as he saw a city, a city of mortal civilization standing on a vast sea – a great scar across the sky, illuminating the roofs and towers of the city and the buildings beyond, not far in front of him, the slightly dilapidated fringes of the city, and on the heights beyond, many distant and magnificent buildings. Not far in front of him was the slightly dilapidated edge of the city, while on the higher ground farther away, he could see many distant and grandiose buildings, the “Upper City” where the cathedral and the city hall were situated.
Duncan suddenly laughed, not audibly, but breathlessly.
After a few moments, however, he forced himself to stop laughing, he took a deep breath in the cool night air, and then he struck out in the direction he remembered.
Cultists also have their own “normal lives”, with the exception of a few “magi” who have made a career out of harming people, the Church of the Sun, like most other cults, relies on a large number of ordinary people to support its operations. –These compelled grassroots believers are the poor citizens of the urban underclass, the uncaring elderly, the uninitiated teenagers, or, like the body Duncan now occupies, ……
An unattended, seriously ill, ordinary man with a scam antique store battling for his life and taxes in the lower city.
The terrible life of the antique store owner named “Ron” is over, and his debt to an evil god was wiped out with his last breath, but he still has a place in the world …… A place that Duncan would love to have! .
(End of chapter)